New Breitling Navitimer celebrates a unique space mission with a unique watch

Breitling has unveiled a new variant of its Navitimer chronograph – and this one isn't quite what it seems. Based on the legendary Cosmonaute used by American astronaut, Scott Carpenter, there's more to this than meets the eye.

For starters, the watch is a 24-hour one. That means the hour hand only spins once per day, as oppose to the twice daily which most other watches make use of.

"Why?", I hear you ask. Well, when Carpenter went to space on the Mercury-Atlas 7 mission, there was a slight time-keeping issue. While orbiting, the sun would rise and set every 90 minutes, which would definitely help you to lose your grip on time pretty quickly.

Carpenter, therefore, asked for a Navitimer with three changes – a wider bezel to make it easier to turn with gloves, a stretchy bracelet to fit over his space suit, and a 24-hour dial. The original was damaged on impact and kept in the Breitling archives until it made an appearance in 2022 to mark the 60th anniversary of the mission.

Now, this model pays tribute to that one, with a 24-hour display and operation made possible by the in-house, COSC-certified Breitling B02 calibre. That's a manually wound, 4Hz movement with around 70 hours of power reserve and a full chronograph to boot.

It sits behind a deep blue dial, complete with white contrasting chronograph sub-dials. That's straddled by Arabic numeral markers, which will certainly take some getting used to if you're accustomed to the standard one-to-twelve dial hour numbering system.

A matching blue alligator leather strap is included, while the case itself is crafted from platinum. That's a 41mm model, and sits just 13mm tall – a pretty wearable-sounding combination.

Limited to just 50 pieces worldwide, this model costs £34,000 (approx. €40,500 / $46,000 / AU$71,000). That's no small change, but when you consider the niche movement, platinum case and limited nature of the release, it's certainly not as bad as it could have been.

Whether you're an aerospace aficionado, or just love a quirky chronograph, this should be on your radar.